Saugus High School graduate Abbey Weitzeil Saturday became the first Southern Californian to win a medal at the Paris Olympics, swimming a leg in a heat for the silver-medal winning U.S. women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.
With Weitzeil swimming the leadoff leg in 53.60 seconds, the U.S. won its heat Saturday morning in 3:33.29, the second-fastest time in the two heats behind Australia’s 3:31.57 in the second heat at Paris La Defense Arena.
Weitzeil and Erika Connolly were replaced in the final by Gretchen Walsh and Tori Huske, who along with Simone Manuel and Kate Douglass were timed in American-record 3:30.20 later Saturday to finish second behind Australia, which won in an Olympic-record 3:28.92, the second-fastest all-time behind its world record of 3:27.96 set last year.
Australia has won the gold medal for four consecutive Olympics.
The Americans’ time in the final is fifth-fastest all-time. The previous American record was 3:31.02 set in 2019.
China won the bronze medal in 3:30.30, the seventh-fastest all-time and the Asian record.
Under Olympic rules, swimmers who swim in heats but not the final also receive medals.
The medal is the fifth for the 27-year-old Weitzeil, who graduated from Saugus High School in 2015 and received a bachelor’s degree in health and welfare studies at University of California, Berkeley.
In the 2016 Olympics, she won a gold medal in the 4×100 medley relay and a silver in the 4×100 freestyle relay. In the coronavirus-delayed Tokyo Olympics, Weitzeil won a silver medal in the 4×100 medley relay and a bronze medal in the 4×100 freestyle relay.